ENCYCLOPDIA IRANICA

SIPA, CENTER FOR IRANIAN STUDIES 450 Riverside Drive, Suite 4 New York, N.Y. 10027 Tel: (212) 851-5723 Fax: (212) 749-9524 email; aa398@columbia.edu

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

April 5, 2007 OFFICIAL RESPONSE OF THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA IRANICA TO THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ARTICLE OF MARCH 25, 2007 ENTITLED U.S.-FUNDED ENCYCLOPEDIA REVELS IN IRANS GREATNESS Mr. Michael Silverman, Managing Editor Associated Press 450 W. 33rd St. New York, NY 10001 Dear Mr. Silverman, On March 25, 2007, Associated Press issued a press release on the Encyclopaedia Iranica project that was picked up by a number of news outlets, including CNN, which published the article on its website. As of todays date, copies of this article (with the same inflammatory header) can be found on over 600 websites. As editors of the Encyclopaedia Iranica, we are bewildered that a reputable news organization such as the Associated Press would release such an inaccurate and libelous report without making any effort to check the accuracy of its assertionsthus violating a most fundamental canon of the profession. At no time, for example, did Jim Krane, the writer of the article, contact the Editorial office of the Encyclopaedia at Columbia University in New York to check the accuracy of his facts. By not taking such a step, the Associated Press has published a defamatory article about a major scholarly project at a prominent American university based on unsubstantiated rumors and hearsay at a social fundraising event in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates! Please consider some of the following gross inaccuracies: Your Statement: the Iranian government bitterly opposes the Encyclopaedia, while the United States government backs it. FACT: The Encyclopaedia Iranica is a non-partisan, non-political, non-religious, nonideological, and entirely independent compendium of objective, documented, and reliable information that draws on the expertise of the best scholars world wide, wherever they may reside, including within Iran. While the National Endowment for the Humanities does indeed support the project as one of the major research tools for the advancement of the humanities, this differs widely from your statement that the United States 1

government backs it. The National Endowment for the Humanities is an independent federal agency whose many projects are reviewed and decided upon by independent panels of scholars. Furthermore, your statement that more than half of the encyclopedias budget comes from the U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities is incorrect. In fact, in recent years the Endowments grant has only covered one-third of the projects operating budget, with two-thirds of the budget raised independently through generous individual donations. The Iranian government, on the other hand, has no connection whatsoever with the project, which is completely outside its purview. Furthermore, your statement that most of the work is done outside of Iran because scholars inside Iran face harassment, is entirely incorrect. The Encyclopaedia solicits entries from the foremost experts on any given topic, including those who reside in Iran. Your article then compounds the factual error that the project is opposed by the Iranian Government by conjuring up a religious reason for this opposition: Yarshater is Bahai. The truth is that while the chief editor of the Encyclopaedia, Professor Ehsan Yarshater, was raised in a Bahai family, he has had no affiliation with the organization of the faith as an adult. Your article then attempts to politicize matters further by stating that the National Endowment for the Humanities...has funded it as a project of major cultural significance since 1979 -- the same year Iranian students occupied the U.S. embassy in Tehran. While this is not factually incorrect, it gives the impression that the two events were somehow connected. In point of fact, the Encyclopaedia Iranica project was conceived at the Center for Iranian Studies of Columbia University in New York in 1973, and the National Endowment for Humanities (again, an independent federal agency) approved its support of the project before the rupture of U.S.-Iran relations following the hostage crisis of 1979-81. In implying a connection between the two events, you have cast totally unwarranted doubt on the scholarly independence and integrity of an academic enterprise that enjoys worldwide recognition in the scholarly community. Your article also contains the absurd claim that the Encyclopaedia Iranica...seeks to distill 5,000 years of Iranian history...into 45 blue-bound volumes proclaiming Irans greatness. It is not the job of a scholarly encyclopedia to tout any countrys greatness, but to present reliable facts and analyses in accordance with the highest standards of scholarship and with full objectivity. Would any reasonable person, for example, describe Encyclopaedia Britannica as a propaganda mouthpiece designed to proclaim the United Kingdoms greatness? The Encyclopaedia has so far published over 7,500 articles on art, literature, history, geography, economics, political relations, archeology, art and architecture, flora & fauna, and entries on every other major topic expected from a comprehensive encyclopaedia. Yet, inexplicably, the only three examples that you chose to highlight were all concerned with religion.

In short, your article creates the impression that the Encyclopaedia is a politically inspired project rather than a collective work of scholarship that has received the highest accolades from scores of leading experts in the field throughout the world. From the heading of your piece, to the factual error that the U.S. government backs the project while the Iranian government opposes it, to the factual error that there are those who oppose the project due to the religion of its Chief Editor, to the factual error that the National Endowment for the Humanities is responsible for more than half of the Encyclopaedias budget, to your interviews at a fundraising event with attendees who had little or no connection with the contents or the editorial policies of the Encyclopaedia (including Mr. Mark Houshmand), the entire piece is riddled with errors while maintaining an unwarranted political perspective. Your various insinuations, whether intended or not, are highly damaging to the hard-earned reputation of the Encyclopaedia as an independent and objective major academic and scholarly enterprise. As a final note, and indicative of the cavalier attitude of your reporter toward facts, we may point to the inaccurate biographical details that you have given about the Encyclopaedias Editor. Professor Yarshater does not currently, nor has he ever, suffered from Parkinsons disease. This frail 86 year old, to use your phrase, has, in the last four years alone, attended fundraisers to aid the completion of this project in Los Angeles, Houston, San Francisco, Miami, New York, Washington DC, Toronto, Dubai, Geneva, and London. Indeed, his editorial work is not limited to the Encyclopaedia Iranica project. He is also working vigorously on a 16-volume History of Persian Literature series, which carries contributions from the most eminent literary scholars in the field worldwide. In accordance with the above points, we ask that you immediately post a formal retraction of the article and publish the entire text of this letter. Sincerely yours, For the Editorial Staff of Encyclopaedia Iranica,

Ahmad Ashraf Managing Editor Center for Iranian Studies Columbia University CC. Nader Ahari, Esquire